The first new council meeting of the year was our organizational meeting. This is the meeting were we choose officers and liaisons to boards.
I nominated councilor Bev Ferrante,who was the chairperson pro-tem last year and deserved to become chairperson. Councilor Ferrante decline the chairmanship because of the time commitment and family reasons.
Councilor Coyle and Councilor Bulkley had expressed an interest in becoming chairman and both had 1 minute to persuade votes from other councilors. In a 4-3 vote, Councilor Bulkley was nominated as this years chairman.
My reasons for voting for councilor Bulkley was the fact that he had 14 years experience and I believe he will keep a very structured meeting on point and as we get into the very difficult decisions to be made, will keep us focused on the issues.
I think Kevin did a very good job on the charter commission as he led them through their meetings and ran those meeting efficiently and fairly, however it was mostly a one-sided group without much opposition. Also Kevin has had only 1 year experience on the council. I think he could of done a decent job, however Craigs experience out-weight and that is why I voted for him.
Councilor Coyle will now have a chance to gain some additional experience as he was nominated a Chairman pro-tem.
Also discussed last night was the time line for choosing our next town administrator. Three years ago we had over 40 applicants and we established a committee of citizens to pick out the 5 best candidates. I believe this is a good way to go because it gets citizens involved in helping select the new administrator. Having said that, This process would not make sense if we have under 10 applicants this time and we will know very soon as the dead line is 4/6.
The time line calls for a selection near the beginning of May.
The discussion then turned to the residency requirement. Mr Coyle pointed out correctly that the charter does not mandate that the administrator must live in Derry, However we can make it part of the contract. I believe Councilor Coyle was trying to bring as many applicants to the table which is good, however I believe we should mandate that the administrator should live in town as they will have a vested interest in decision being made and recommendations to the town. ( Council voted to keep this a part of the contract)
Private roads now has a date for workshop/public hearing on 5/7 at 6:30. Again I recommended having a separate workshop, then public hearing, then council vote but the majority felt that combining the workshop/public hearing would work better.I'm hoping to get plenty of citizen feedback on this important topic!!
And last, we spoke about mosquito program. This year we will do a springtime larvea-cide which kills them before the are born and then we can do a fall adult spraying and monitoring throughout the summer. My questions this year was about the money side- about $55k will come from present budget and another 22k or so will come from FY08 budget which will be discussed at budget time! So all in all we will be spending upwards of $80,000 to kill these pests! ( hmmm kill insects or hire an economic development director! Thats another topic for later)
Its alot of money and I have mixed feelings on this issue, however I could not live with myself if someone contracts West Nile or EEE and dies from it. My biggest question is when can we stop spraying or does this just keep going on and on and costing us more and more each year?? We will however get some help from the state as they will give us 25% back ( Hopefully this pool of money does not evaporate quickly)
What are your thoughts on the first meeting of the year? I'm interested in your comments!
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This weeks Council Report Card
Overall --- an “A-“. The tone was cooperative; let us all hope it remains at this level.
From left to right:
Kevin Coyle – a “C-”. His case for voting for him as Chairman was a longer stretch than his reasoning to consider non-residents for Town Administrator.
Brian Chirichiello – an “A-”. Good questions and reasoning; he’s going to make an eminently better Councilor than Chairman.
Bev Ferante – a “C+”. Her defense of Ash Street/DEDC deal was both weak and not necessary --- regardless of it’s level of success, that deal is done, let’s move on! Only the politically minded want to keep it alive.
Craig Buckley – a “B+”. A great job moving the meeting along in a respectful tone --- he was the first to respond to Joe D. on the Ash Street thing --- again, conversations about past deals aren’t constructive.
Rick Metts – An “A+”. He showed non-partisanship in voting for Kevin Coyle for Chairman Pro Tem and also showed flexibility for in withdrawing his own motion on the Town Administrator matter.
Brent Carney – a “B-“. His first vote as Councilor (for the Chairmanship) was a partisan one and it defied the facts; Kevin Coyle has one year on the Council and is in the minority – here he missed an opportunity to show independence and unity to Derry . On the other hand he, like Rick, showed flexibility in withdrawing his own second.
Janet Fairbanks – An “F”. She apologized to Kevin (“I’m sorry Kevin, but…”) before voting against his idea to allow a non-resident as the Town Administrator. Kind of makes you wonder which of the other Councilors she will apologize to before casting future dissenting votes. She also thanked the Union Leader for not publishing a story on her latest misstep, but at the same time offered the public access to the information in question…and the Press bought it….damage control at it’s best!
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